Sponsors (3)
The bill centralizes and builds NNSA nuclear forensics capacity and workforce to strengthen response capabilities, at the cost of reduced DHS redundancy, short-term transition risks, and likely additional taxpayer funding.
Federal agencies and the public: centralizing nuclear forensics under NNSA improves coordination and speed of responses to nuclear terrorism or attacks.
Students, scientists, and researchers: a required NNSA university program will develop nuclear forensics skills within one year, expanding technical expertise and workforce pipeline.
Taxpayers and federal workers: consolidating functions between DHS and DOE may streamline operations and reduce duplication, potentially saving resources over time.
Department of Homeland Security and local governments: moving attribution roles to NNSA may reduce DHS's role and eliminate interagency redundancy that provided checks or alternative capabilities.
Taxpayers: creating and expanding a specialized federal center and programs will likely require additional funding, increasing fiscal costs.
Federal employees and local governments: shifting responsibilities could produce short-term transition costs and operational gaps during reorganization.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Moves statutory nuclear forensics authority from DHS to create a new National Nuclear Forensics Center in NNSA, repeals the prior law, and directs workforce development via NNSA university programs.
Official title: To realign the nuclear forensics and attribution activities of the Federal Government from the Department of Homeland Security to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Introduced May 21, 2026 by Bill Foster · Last progress May 21, 2026
Creates a new National Nuclear Forensics Center inside the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to centralize and lead federal nuclear forensics and attribution activities. The bill moves statutory responsibilities away from DHS, repeals the prior Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act, directs the NNSA to strengthen university programs to develop nuclear forensics expertise, and updates statutes and references to reflect the new NNSA center. The Center will coordinate planning, gap analysis, exercises, operational improvements, research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E), and integration across federal partners to maintain a durable national technical nuclear forensics capability to support responses to nuclear terrorism or other nuclear attacks.